


Come With Me

by Val_Ritz



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, Sadstuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-10
Updated: 2013-04-10
Packaged: 2017-12-08 02:33:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/755976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Val_Ritz/pseuds/Val_Ritz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Years in the future, but not many...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Come With Me

The starlight seemed almost sorrowful tonight. Then again, it was hard to find something that wasn’t. The frogs were silent, the rivers subdued; even those present couldn’t find it in them to hide the tears from their voices.

The group that gathered around LOFAF’s Quest Bed was smaller than perhaps it should have been. Of the thirteen that had first settled on the fertile land, eleven remained. Aradia had smiled until the very end, and had mumbled about corpse parties almost as long. Sollux followed not long after, more bored than anything. “When you’ve died ath many timeth ath I have, it getth old,” he joked. The two were together even in death, side by side.

And so there they were: Karkat, bent but very much unbroken, snapped at a cackling John beside him. Kanaya, hair tastefully and tactfully streaked with dyed grey, sat at a sleeping Rose’s side. Long fingers stroked the now-blind Seer’s careworn face. Terezi looked much as she had since her maturation, but her trademark grin was conspicuously absent on this occasion. Dirk stood tall beside Jake, who was less so, and Roxy looked on from a chair.

Two, however, were not like the others.

Jane had started to notice it at thirty; where the others were starting to find the brokenness that came with aging, she was just as hale and hearty as she’d always been. At first it had been chalked up to good breeding, but thirty-five, forty, forty-five passed with no change. It had dawned on her that Life would not let her go to Death; everyone else agreed that she hadn’t been the same since.

Dave, on the other hand, was conspicuously closed-lipped about his appearance. Everyone else had agreed that it had to be his Time powers, but Aradia hadn’t bothered to stave off eternity; some resented it, others ignored it, but Jade defended him always.

Or, at least, she had. The lady of the hour was beyond that now. She lay on her Quest Bed, propped up by pillows and sleeping peacefully. The gathering had materialized at Jane’s behest; she had sensed time was short.  
Finally, Karkat rounded on Dave, hoarse but still very capable of chewing many an ear off.

“Well isn't this the happy couple. The dying Witch and her ageless companion. Have you enjoyed yourself fully? Do you think you've done quite enough gloating by your entire bulgetending existence? Somewhere in that horrifying mess of alien organs, is your success gland pumping joyously? Did you fucking win, Dave?”

Strider looked over, not answering for a few painful moments. Finally, words came.

“Shut the fuck up.”

Karkat's ire rose like the candy red in his eyes. “SHUT THE FUC-” He was cut off by a sharp hush from Kanaya, who nodded to Dave to continue. The Knight exhaled deeply and kept talking.

“One afternoon, years and years ago. She asked me if I had thought about dying. About what would happen now that we were getting older. I told her that I had always assumed we’d go on forever, that I could keep us young. She got pretty pissed. I remember her scolding me.” He paused for a small chuckle. “She said to me all officious and such ‘David Strider, you can’t possibly expect me to be young forever! Past me is terrible, and I can’t imagine being her for eternity!’ I thought it was funny until I saw her face. It was...fear, almost, like fear of something you can’t stop, like looking up at Jack for the first time. She made me promise that day...”

His head dropped to his chest, and tears rolled down to soak into the red suit. “She said to me... She said that we had a child, said that she wanted to make sure he got raised up right, that all of them did... She told me to make sure he grew up like I did.”

A wavering voice from the center of the circle chimed in. “And you said you would make sure he didn’t have to. I know, Dave.” Everyone turned in surprise. Dave immediately moved to take her hand.   
“You should be resting,” he whispered. “I know,” smiled Jade, “But I’ve got plenty of rest coming to me soon.” She laid back on the pillows again, and gestured for him to come near. She whispered faintly in his ear.

“You’ve been a good father, Dave. The best. I need to ask you one last favor.”

“What?”

“Come with me.”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

He climbed up onto the slab of stone, holding her close to him, and closed his eyes. All at once, his blonde hair turned to strands of snow, creases became deep-worn lines. John began to cry. The Knight and the Witch took one last breath together and vanished, leaving nothing behind but a single pair of aviator sunglasses and a pair of red slippers. A troll’s voice thickly murmured “Stop blubbering, you pansy,” and collapsed into sobs.


End file.
